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Low Carb

19 years ago

What is your opinion of this new diet craze?

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Comments (4)

kathy_
19 years ago
If combined with reasonable fat I think it is fine. Some people use it as an excuse to overindulge in fats (especially meats) and rewrite published diets to suit their own taste.
One good thing though is people with diabetes have a lot more choices at the stores since they must follow a low-carb diet anyway.
(Any diet should be supervised by a doctor to keep an eye on your blood counts.)
Kathy
Susy
19 years ago
The Atkins Diet has been around for a long time now. The Protein Power Plan is the one DH and I are doing; it is a modified version of Atkins. We can have up to 10 carbs a meal along with our minimum protein requirements which you figure from a equation chart the book has. We stay away from flour (white especially), potatoes (I bake potatoes, take out the pulp except for about 1/4 along the sides, butter and call them potato skins. Use butter and some non transfat margarines.

We eat green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini as our other vegetables along with lots of salads which I love. I love cheesecake so make these using several varietions I have picked up on the LowCarb Friends site. I use Splenda, 1/3 less fat cream cheese, sour cream and for cream I use Hood's Carb Countdown milk which is really rich tasting. I love the Chocolate flavor. DH has cereal most mornings using Special K low carb variety with the Hood's milk. Atkins has a cereal I like Morning Start Crunchy Almond Crisp. I buy the Special K at Wal-Mart but most of the Atkin's stuff I can find at Big Lot's, etc for lot's less money!! Found a Total Protein Low Carb cereal when I was at Big Lot's Tuesday along with Atkins corn muffin mix which I will need as it is getting cooler weather and soup time. I am waiting for someone to come along with a good low carb cracker!!!

We eat pork cutlets, talapia fish, tuna, salmon or beef and chicken in some form most midday and evening meals along with a vegetable and salad. No bread except for some low carb I keep for french toast, regular toast and a sandwich now and then. If we can't have the real thing we can do with out bread easily.

I have done Weight Watcher's, TOPS, Protein Power Plan in the past and the programs are as good as the person using them. If you stick with the guidelines they are all going to work. Doing PP/low carb is sure easier now that it was 5 years ago when we were on it due to all the low carb options now when you go to the grocery store-- but not all of the low carb options are that great-- taste wise. We are better off sticking to the basics but if you can't have the "real deal" the low carb items out there help.

I switched from WW to PP because DH is diabetic and wanted to try to get his blood levels back in line--it really helped when we were on it 5 years ago but we slowly drifted off and his sugar levels drifted back up along with both of our cholesterol and trigliceride levels. He is on Lipitor which I sure hope he can get off of--don't like the side effects of most meds.

Exercise, Water and Portion Control are stressed on PP as well as most other programs I have been on and is a real Key to success!

Susy/Missouri
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I think I figured that a single Hershey's Kiss is 2.4 carbs and I'll have to check out those Russell Stover candies. Thanks, Linda. I've actually make some of the no carb chocolates posted on lowcarbfriends.com but the real stuff is soooo much better. And tell your friend to check out the health food bars. There are small, snack size chocolate bars with as little 2 net carbs. For dessert, I like the sugar free puddings. And I often mix up this one from The South Beach Diet. SOUTH BEACH RICOTTA CREMES 1/2 c. ricotta part-skim ricotta cheese 1/4 t. vanilla 1-2 pkts Splenda You can add cocoa for flavor or substitute almond extract and add some almond slivers. Teri
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One of my doctor friends says a calorie is a calorie. You can eat 2 500 calorie candy bars and call it your calorie intake for the day or you can eat 1000 calories of lettuce. In his opinion, you should have the same result. I do think portion has a lot to do with it, I think carbs play a factor but the most important carbs that we should watch is the refined sugar carbs IMO. And the closer to natural that you can get food (and then you cook it yourself) the better it is for you. So much food which we really don't considered processed food has added sugar which is added carbs. And I don't think artificial sweeteners are any better than real sugar -- in fact if I want something sweet, I would prefer the real deal. We're dieting now -- sort of semi low carb. We're making good progress and are better with our food choices. Feathers -- I've never went with all those "mini meals" -- to be it's just meals and snacks and if you want to maintain your weight when you're off the diet you have reprogrammed yourself to eat 3 more times a day so after diet, it becomes a morning donut and an afternoon candy bar. IMO, learning to eat 3 meals a day that leaves your full and satisfied is the best thing you can do.
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I will have eight people and two are 7 and 11 yr olds who will eat the hotdogs, mac and cheese and their own made-by- me desserts. Smores and rainbow sherbert. One is a picky vegetarian, one a millennial, one likes no sweets at all, one wants a very traditional thanksgiving, one happy camper and one is trying not to gain weight and eat healthy-me. I bought canned crescent rolls for our bread. Prior self would have shuddered with horror. I'm trying to get ideas here before I give up completely and it turns into a scene from Talledega Nights where we order fast food for everyone. :-)
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alisande
19 years ago
Yes, the Atkins diet has been around for quite some time. Dr. Atkins was my physician in NYC in the 1960s.

As I say so often, diet is an individual thing. If I had continued eating those Atkins-recommended saturated fats all these years, I probably wouldn't be around today. On the other hand, I gained weight and dangerously increased my triglycerides on the largely vegetarian, high complex-carb diet I fed to my family (and they thrived on).

So nine years ago, when I made a last-ditch effort to lose weight and get healthy, I greatly reduced the carbs and the saturated fats. For me, this was the best way to go.

I think most people would benefit by eliminating sugar and white flour, but some people seem to be able to tolerate anything.

Susan
intherain
19 years ago
No matter what "system" you use, it MUST be something you can do every day for the rest of your life. So many people go on these fad diets and lose a lot of weight, but they cannot stick with it. I personally had no success with Low Carb because I hated what I was eating. I hated knowing I couldn't eat certain things. For me, it's all about exercise and portion control. That's it.

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